Such a great title - especially with the implication of the song's hook line! I hope we don't get fooled again and that some risk and innovation in new British musicals will happen at The Other Palace. But as you say, Adam, the commercial flag was firmly planted by Paul in that press release. He definitely loves musicals. Everything crossed here for some boundary-pushing among the commercial stuff. If it's 'not a charity', then searching elsewhere at tax-payer funded places yields us that National Theatre, where their big musical this year seems designed to bolster the finances of the artistic director's household, with one eye on a transfer and the resulting royalties rolling in to the book writer and self-appointed 'lyricist'. That can't be right for a place we fund with our taxes.
I read other artistic directors’ announcements and they talk about what values they hope to advocate for in the venue (inclusivity, diversity, social awareness etc).
We all know we live in a capitalist hellhole, we don’t need the AD reminding us of that. The AD’s job is help us fight back against all that - to champion our shared values in the face of this brutal, corporate race to the bottom.
I have nothing against Paul himself but that announcement was indeed symptomatic of the wider problem with musical theatre and commercialism.
Such a great title - especially with the implication of the song's hook line! I hope we don't get fooled again and that some risk and innovation in new British musicals will happen at The Other Palace. But as you say, Adam, the commercial flag was firmly planted by Paul in that press release. He definitely loves musicals. Everything crossed here for some boundary-pushing among the commercial stuff. If it's 'not a charity', then searching elsewhere at tax-payer funded places yields us that National Theatre, where their big musical this year seems designed to bolster the finances of the artistic director's household, with one eye on a transfer and the resulting royalties rolling in to the book writer and self-appointed 'lyricist'. That can't be right for a place we fund with our taxes.
I read other artistic directors’ announcements and they talk about what values they hope to advocate for in the venue (inclusivity, diversity, social awareness etc).
We all know we live in a capitalist hellhole, we don’t need the AD reminding us of that. The AD’s job is help us fight back against all that - to champion our shared values in the face of this brutal, corporate race to the bottom.
I have nothing against Paul himself but that announcement was indeed symptomatic of the wider problem with musical theatre and commercialism.